Tarzan, Star Quarterback
by sarajane
Summary: Tarzan, you should play professional sports! Tarzan's team mates help him out with Jane. Please review!


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, or the TV series in any form. I'm making no profit off of this, or any of my other fanfics. I'm writing for my own enjoyment, and hopefully for the enjoyment of some of the fellow fans.  
  
Tarzan Star Quarterback- A short story based on the WB TV Series "Tarzan"  
  
"Well, what do you think?" The owner of the Dallas Cowboys looked at his team manager.  
  
"Unbelievable." The manager shook his head in disbelief as he watched the tape again in slow motion.  
  
"He's our new quarterback. Get him. Whatever it takes." The owner ordered and walked out.  
  
Jane was sitting at her desk at the Precinct drinking coffee. Sam arrived and threw down the Sports Section of the Newspaper.  
  
"Your boy's on the front page."  
  
Jane picked up the newspaper. John's handsome face stared out. Dressed in a Dallas Cowboys' uniform, with his tight tee shirt and pants, helmet crammed low he looked very intense.  
  
Her heart beat faster.  
  
She hadn't seen him in a month.  
  
Kathleen called and invited her to the Giants Cowboys game that weekend. The Claytons had a skybox.  
  
"Richard'll be there. Try to be polite. He's very proud of John." Kathleen said over the phone.  
  
"Who wouldn't be?" Jane replied. "I'll be polite, but I'm still coming armed. Sam wants to come too, do you have room?"  
  
"Sure," Kathleen answered. "Kick offs at two. Have you spoken with John?"  
  
Kathleen had given John a cell phone, which he was always forgetting to turn on and carry with him. Jane had his schedule and had tried to call him while he was on the road either on his cell or at his hotel but she wasn't always able to catch him. But they'd managed to make a date for after the game.  
  
"Yes, we're going out after the game." Jane answered blushing like a schoolgirl and added without thinking, "I can't wait to see him."  
  
John and his teammates were in Dallas getting ready for the Giants game that weekend. The team had bunked together at their training location.  
  
John was sitting on the sidelines talking to his linebackers.  
  
"We're taking you out tonight Tarzan." The team players loved to call him Tarzan because he was so wild on the field. John Clayton was his public name but his team preferred his jungle name. They'd adopted Tarzan as his nickname.  
  
"We're going clubbing, I got new wheels, their tight man, twelve inch rims, spinners, you're gonna love em, yeah baby!" The two linebackers high fived each other and slapped John on the back.  
  
"Looks like it's our turn now." The linebackers rose from the bench dragging John with them and whistling at the Dallas Cowgirls who were practicing on the sidelines swinging their pompoms and doing their high kicks.  
  
"Time to play boys." The Coach shouted.  
  
The Cowgirls stopped to watch John. They'd been working on a new routine but stopped when he took the field.  
  
"That boy, oh my," was all the girls could say, as they stood fanning their faces and giggling.  
  
"Get out here Clayton, show us what ya got." Coach yelled.  
  
John crouched low; his eyes glazed red with the thrill of the hunt and the game. He barked out his play and then growled ominously, his sign that the play would begin in one, two, three seconds. He threw the ball to the running back, who handed it back. John backed down the field, chose his target carefully and with incredible accuracy threw the ball exactly in the right spot. It was caught easily by the tight end who ran the ball down the field.  
  
"Touchdown!"  
  
John's speed and agility amazed the entire team and coaches. The veterans tried to liken his play to another great player but found no one to whom they could compare him. He was wild and savage. His throws were enormous and deadly accurate. His sense of timing was incomparable. In fact, they'd had to tone him down and told him things he shouldn't do, at least not yet.  
  
"Don't run over the backs of the crouched players. Don't leap over the standing ones. Don't wait for the tackle and then move with lightening speed. These are your secret weapons. We want to save them for the Super Bowl." Coach had warned him, so sure that this year with Clayton, their superstar, they would be at the Super Bowl.  
  
Jane tried to reach John on his cell phone and at his lodging. She couldn't connect, until finally she reached him at the training center apartments.  
  
"John how's the football?" Jane asked breezily.  
  
"I love it." John said. "I was made for it."  
  
"Yes, I thought professional sports might interest you," Jane laughed trying to sound breezy and not intense.  
  
"So what have you been doing?" she asked.  
  
"Practicing, playing and going out clubbing with the linebackers."  
  
This news made Jane's stomach flip. She was so afraid that the progress they'd made might be destroyed by his new fame and life. But then he added simply.  
  
"I wanted to be with you."  
  
"Yeah, me too." She said.  
  
"Why can't you come and be with me?" John asked.  
  
"Well, I think your team might have a problem with that. You have to stay focused on the game and anyway, I have my job." She answered.  
  
"Give it up, come be with me," he whispered into the phone.  
  
"I can't John, not right now, you know that. We can talk about it some more this weekend. I can't wait to see you! I'm coming to see the game. Can you come by the skybox? Kathleen and Sam'll be there. Richard'll be there too, I hear he's very proud of you."  
  
They talked for a few minutes more until John was called to practice. He hung up the phone and put his head in his hands. He yearned for Jane, why couldn't they just be together?  
  
"Wazzup Tarzan," the linebackers asked him. "You always have that blue look after you talk to that girl. What's the matter?"  
  
John told them some of his story and history with Jane. He told them they were going to see each other on Saturday and that she was coming to the game. She'd asked him to come by the skybox. He wanted to, but dreaded that his uncle would there too.  
  
"No problem, man. We'll come with you, protect you from your uncle, make sure you get the girl!"  
  
"Send her some flowers at work, that always worked for me. Here, I'll do it for you." His friends reached for the phone to place an order.  
  
"Where does she work, man?"  
  
John told them.  
  
"NYPD, dude, you got a handful there, you sure she's the one for you? We got lots of girls we can hook you up with. The Cowgirls are all drooling for you. You sure she's the one man?"  
  
John nodded sadly, yes, she was the one.  
  
Jane's hand was shaking as she hung up the phone. She knew in her heart she was postponing the inevitable. They'd be together, she knew it. But right now, he was making his way in a new world as a superstar football player and she was still here, at the Precinct, doing what her heart had led her to; helping others.  
  
"You all right partner?" Sam asked as he saw Jane put her head in her hands.  
  
"Yeah, sure. What's up?" She smiled distractedly at Sam.  
  
"We got a case, we gotta go. Kid goes home after spending the weekend with Dad, finds Mom dead in the kitchen, head blown off." Sam brought Jane up to speed as they walked to their car.  
  
"Poor kid." Jane said as she got in the car.  
  
"Yeah, that's our lives, sadness and mayhem." Sam replied as he cranked the car.  
  
"Hey Porter, you got a gift." The desk sergeant greeted them when they returned.  
  
Jane looked over his shoulder to her desk; an enormous bouquet of red roses had been delivered with a note. Everyone in the Precinct had read the note, all it said was. "See you Saturday. John Clayton."  
  
She wondered if he'd sent it himself, surely if he'd sent it he would have said more than that? Of course with all the things they'd never said to each other, perhaps that's all she deserved. She took the note and held it to her forehead. A tear made its way down her cheek.  
  
Saturday came, finally. It'd been a long week. Jane stretched in bed and felt her heart jump. She'd see John today.  
  
It was noon. John was in the locker room with his team, pacing up and down like a caged tiger.  
  
"Stay focused, man this is an important game," Coach told him. Everyone was noticing his behavior; his pacing, the sad and untamed look in his eye. They were worried he wouldn't keep it together.  
  
John couldn't understand what they were worried about. Playing football was like breathing to him. He played unconsciously with his instinct. His instinct would work fine; it was his heart he was worried about. He kept looking at the clock. He'd told Jane to be at the skybox at one but he could only stay for five minutes.  
  
Jane was anxious too. She arrived early, at twelve thirty. Sam had met her and walked in with her. She saw Richard who gave her a disdainful and dismissive look. Kathleen greeted her and Sam warmly.  
  
"Does Richard know John's coming to the box at one?" Jane asked.  
  
"No." Kathleen replied. "No point in stirring things up. Have a beer."  
  
Kathleen led them to the bar. "Take off your jackets and make yourself comfortable."  
  
Sam took off his jacket and hung it behind a chair. Jane, who was feeling icy cold inside kept hers on.  
  
Finally one o'clock came.  
  
John arrived, he was in uniform and he wasn't alone. His linebackers, his three hundred pound, six foot six guards had come with him.  
  
One of the linebackers entered the box first, making sure there was no danger for his prize quarterback. Seeing all was clear he motioned John and the second linebacker to come inside.  
  
John's eyes clamped onto Jane's. Their gaze held each other in a time warp. She walked towards him in a daze. The linebacker who was blocking access to John let her pass.  
  
Richard got up to talk to John. By this time both linebackers had blocked all access to John and Jane. Standing with their arms folded the linebackers glared down at Richard. "I want to see my nephew," Richard demanded.  
  
"He's busy right now, man. Take your seat." Gently they pushed Richard back towards his seat.  
  
Tripping over, he picked himself up and said. "Out of my way, I want to talk to my nephew."  
  
The linebackers glared at him some more and then snarled at him, the way John had taught them. Richard for the first time in a long time felt intimidated and went cautiously back to his seat. "I'll talk to him later," he mumbled.  
  
Kathleen and Sam watched the exchange between Richard and the linebackers and couldn't help laughing. They snickered and clinked their glasses together.  
  
John meanwhile had Jane to himself for five minutes. He stood staring at her at first and then reached out for her hands.  
  
She took them eagerly and then exclaimed, "Oh to hell with this, I've missed you so much," She threw her arms around him and held him close.  
  
He let out a loud sigh. Finally, he felt he was home again. He felt right again. He melted against her and held her tight.  
  
They stood that way for several minutes, holding each other as close as they could. One of the linebackers finally turned his head and said, "Tarzan, football time. We gotta go."  
  
John slowly let go his grip on Jane. She let go reluctantly, then holding his face with her hands kissed him full on the lips.  
  
"For luck," she said.  
  
He kissed her back and replied, "No, for love."  
  
"Yes," she replied, "for love. Now go play some football." 


End file.
